Just a reminder, the Inside the Dodgers tour is next Saturday, June 27 and we have close to 50 people already on board. You can also purchase group tickets for that night and it’s looking more and more likely that we will be able to bring out OldBrooklynFan after all…

If you’re interested in the group tour at 11:30, please email Dustin at dustinp@ladodgers.com and he’ll take credit card info, etc. to get you set up.

If you want to attend the game that night against the Mariners, please contact Kris at krisz@ladodgers.com or 323.224.1308.

While 100,000-plus people were celebrating the Lakers’ championship at the parade, there was a quieter salute taking place today at Fire Station 20, as we took Rafael Furcal over to visit the station that is responsible for Dodger Stadium. What a cool visit, with Raffy actually getting on a truck as they were heading off to a fire.

David Ely was there for MLB.com, so you should see a story up soon on dodgers.com, but it was a pretty cool experience for Raffy, who has been working to secure a fire truck for his hometown in the Dominican Republic.

He’s hitting second again tonight as we take on the A’s with free parking again (and a salute to firefighters at the stadium).

Pretty cool photo shoot going on out on the field right now. Several of our players are taking photographs with kids from the Department of Children & Family Services and they’ll be featured in the Team Photo calendar that we’ll give away on Oct. 3. Each of these kids can be adopted and from what I understand, when the Chargers did this last year, each of the kids found a home. Needless to say, it hasn’t been tough wrangling up guys to take part in this.

Just ran into Nomar, too, wearing green. Looks kind of funny, but he’s back off the DL and I’d imagine we’ll see him at some point this series.

Rubber match here and it’s going to be a warm one here. Let’s hope Chad is economical with his pitches, given the humidity. And fortunately, no lights are needed in a day game, as last night’s two-hour, 28-minute affair was hardly that.

Here’s hoping the Lake show can wrap it up tonight and be crowned champions. That would mean no game on Tuesday and everyone can take advantage of the free parking at Dodger Stadium in the homestand opener against Nomar’s A’s. And hopefully we could bring the team out for a celebration at the stadium.

Birthday wishes go out to Big Newk! He’s 83 today, and I don’t know another 83-year-old who can pull off class like he can. The hat, the suit, the aura. It’s pretty impressive.

Last chance for you Martinistas to take part in Under the Lights tomorrow night…Russ will be at the ballpark hosting the batting practice event with Jamie Hoffmann, Ron Cey, and Steve Garvey.

All of the regulars are in there today, with Joe T. saying that tomorrow’s day off is enough. Russell shifts over to DH and Ausmus will do the catching. Here’s the lineup:

We don’t come here very often, so we’re jamming a lot into a short amount of time. We hit up the book depository in Dealey Plaza this morning and the JFK museum that is there. Then an old Dodger colleague took several of us, including Clayton Kershaw, on a tour of the new Cowboys Stadium. Wow – it seems to be worth every bit of the $1.2 billion they spent on building it.

Over at Psychollingy, Eric Collins posted his latest and man, you talk about dedication…his computer got a virus and went down completely, but he typed it out at the business center at our hotel and emailed it to me late last night.

We arrived in Dallas a bit ago and it’s warm…supposed to be over 100 tomorrow. Any ITDers in Dallas that check out the site on a regular basis? Surely there have got to be some of Clayton Kershaw’s old buddies on here somewhere…

And of course we’re bummed that OldBrooklynFan/PierreEastMeetsWest can’t take Frank McCourt up on his offer of a free trip out to Dodger Stadium for the ITD Tour but we’ll keep working at it. No one should be a fan that long and not get a chance to see Blue Heaven on Earth.

And from Mark Langill, here’s a cool note:

Congratulations to former Dodger third baseman Dick Gray who will be inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame on June 12 (tomorrow). Gray was a rookie in 1958 and made his Major League debut in the team’s first game on the West Coast, at San Francisco on April 15.

Gray hit the first home run in Los Angeles team history on April 16 during a 13-1 victory at Seals Stadium. He also hit the first Dodger home run at the Coliseum on April 18 in a 6-5 victory over the Giants. Injuries limited Gray to just 58 games in 1958 and he batted .249 with nine home runs and 30 RBI.

The Dodgers traded Gray to the Cardinals in June 1959 in exchange for outfielder Chuck Essegian. Gray, who joined the Buena Park School District after his baseball career, today is retired and lives in Anaheim and Louisiana.

You really start to feel old when you see a lot of the kids we’re drafting were born in the 90s. Yes, day two of the draft is over and one more day is left.

Yesterday we drafted Brett Wallach, the son of Tim Wallach, and we already have Matt Wallach in our system. Hopefully we’ll see both the younger Wallachs in the big league sometime soon.

Meanwhile, a former first-round pick Steve Lyons weighed in over at Psychollingy with his draft day memories while Tommy Lasorda, who was at the MLB Network headquarters back east, posted on his blog, too.

Back here at Dodger Stadium, we just finished a photo shoot for the cover of Sporting News, so be on the lookout for that in the coming weeks.

The Baseball Draft has gone Primetime, so to speak, and is on the MLB Network as we speak. We don’t pick until #36, as our first-round choice went to the D’backs for Orlando Hudson but right now, I’d say no one is complaining about that!

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.